Is lithuania....? [R]

[Apalisoc_9]

Lithuania has won there two previous games and they did it against romania and austria who happens to be candidtaes to taking the no. 2 spot on the group. I have not watched the game, but does anyone think they can qualify?

I dont know much about their football, but do they have a superstar or something or is it just teamwork

[MilanOnlyMilan]

No, we don't have any superstars, it is really a teamwork, that gave us such results, in the last two matches. We have some solid players, who plays in good clubs though, like Sampdoria, Livorno, Rangers, Hearts, Cska, Dinamo Moscow. Also, worth to mention is the fact, that we got a new coach from Portugal, Couceiro, who seems to be a very good specialist (if i am not mistaken he is quite highly rated in Portugal, was even a coach of a year in their premier division).
Talking about our chances to qualify, i would say why not. Serbia, Romania, and even France are not the same what they used to be, so we may have a chance.

[glennaldo_sf]

I remember Lithuania pushed Germany + Scotland all the way in the 2004 EC qualifiers. They also got a 1-1 draw in Italy on the Italians WC winning homecoming for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. If Latvia could qualify for a major tournament, why not Lithuania?

Only problem is that this is a pretty tough group.. France, Serbia, Austria and romania are all formidable opponents and remember the 2nd placed team must win via the playoffs. One 2nd placed team with the worst record won't make the playoffs and given the relative balance between the teams from 1-5th in this group, this may be it. However, we have seen Latvia and Slovenia do stuff like this before so its not entirely improbable.

[BocaFan]

I remember Lithuania pushed Germany + Scotland all the way in the 2004 EC qualifiers. They also got a 1-1 draw in Italy on the Italians WC winning homecoming for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. If Latvia could qualify for a major tournament, why not Lithuania?


UEFA will probaby fix the playoff-round draw again so that the big nations have the best chance at qualifying. So even if Lithuania finishes second, expect them to play Germany or Italy in the playoff. :rolleyes:

[glennaldo_sf]

UEFA will probaby fix the playoff-round draw again so that the big nations have the best chance at qualifying. So even if Lithuania finishes second, expect them to play Germany or Italy in the playoff. :rolleyes:

Yes... I believe they already have. They're using the coefficient ranking system to seed the playoff teams if I'm not mistaken. They did the same thing in the last playoffs so that Spain, Turkey and Czech Republic all avoided each other. They'll do the same thing this time as well I reckon, so yes - Lithuania will get a tough playoff opponent.

[Pit-182]

Yes... I believe they already have. They're using the coefficient ranking system to seed the playoff teams if I'm not mistaken. They did the same thing in the last playoffs so that Spain, Turkey and Czech Republic all avoided each other. They'll do the same thing this time as well I reckon, so yes - Lithuania will get a tough playoff opponent.
Hey that isn't a bad thing at all. In Italy we call it "sistema delle teste di serie"

Anyway here are some Lithuania highlights... Danilevicius is such a great player... Modena wanted tou buy him one years ago if I remember correctly.
http://it.youtube.com/watch?v=dMqdz4SENdY&feature=related

[Lusankya]

Yes... I believe they already have. They're using the coefficient ranking system to seed the playoff teams if I'm not mistaken. They did the same thing in the last playoffs so that Spain, Turkey and Czech Republic all avoided each other. They'll do the same thing this time as well I reckon, so yes - Lithuania will get a tough playoff opponent.
I think they use the fifa ranking, but this won't change much.
And where is the problem in seeding the play-offs?

[glennaldo_sf]

I don't mind a seeding playoff but I would rather it be done more out of (recent) merit with higher validity and reliability than the FIFA rankings. Personally I think they should make a little minigroup of the 8 2nd place nations qualifying for the playoffs and take their records against the top 4 teams in their respective groups and distribute the playoff matchups that way. For instance, the team with the best 2nd placed record would play the 8th 2nd best placed team. The 2nd vs 7th, 3rd v 6th and 4th v 5th... this way the seeding would be done based on performance in these qualifiers only as opposed to FIFA rankings or previous qualifying performances.

[BocaFan]

And where is the problem in seeding the play-offs?

My main problem with it is that they decide on the seeding format after the playoff teams are known. At least that's what they did last time.

It smells corrupt even if it isn't. You gotta lay-out the ground-rules beforehand, its just standard practice. You wouldn't want an organizing committee choosing a tie-breaker rule only after two teams finished tied.

[GoodDead]

No, we don't have any superstars, it is really a teamwork, that gave us such results, in the last two matches. We have some solid players, who plays in good clubs though, like Sampdoria, Livorno, Rangers, Hearts, Cska, Dinamo Moscow. Also, worth to mention is the fact, that we got a new coach from Portugal, Couceiro, who seems to be a very good specialist (if i am not mistaken he is quite highly rated in Portugal, was even a coach of a year in their premier division).
Talking about our chances to qualify, i would say why not. Serbia, Romania, and even France are not the same what they used to be, so we may have a chance.

Couceiro is not highly rated he is the biggest failure of a coach. Led a solid U20 out of the U20 World Cup early as they played horrible with no chesion then took the U21 with the likes of Quaresma, Nani, Fernandes, Almeida which was rated by all teams to be the best U21 and had them not only crash out of the group stage of the UEFA U21 Championships but also blow a playoff game for the Olympics, he was finally fired and was confused as to why and even blamed players for his sacking.

This clown was also the same guy that "managed" Porto to lose the league for the first time in a long time to a much more inferior team (Benfica) since Mourinho (and even before) Porto was very domiant and since Cousceiro Porto has won the league 3 years in a row, but they could of actually finished 4th the year he coached if not from slip ups from Sporting and Braga against other teams. He went to Greece and failed at the club level there too.

What ever Lithuania is doing is because of their players trust me Couceiro is a cancer and a horrible manager if I could call him that.

For the record at the U20 World Cup in Toronto I was working a dinner for the Portuguese National team and after the players left he addressed the crowd and basically told us not to get our hopes up, no not because our players sucked as many played for good teams (Pele - Inter Milan, Antunes - Roma, Patricio - Sporting, Coentrao - Benfica) but because "there are things we can't control"......:rolleyes: his whole speach was a downer and I thought to myself "my God this guy is supposed to lead our youth???" Players partied all night and he didn't care.

Good Luck on the rest of qualifying Lithuania but don't give that dirt bag any credit.

[evangel]

Am I the only one that believes that Lithuania has a good shot of beating France? I'm certainly not expecting France to go to Romania and win by 3 goals.

[ECMoney]

Lithuania has won there two previous games and they did it against romania and austria who happens to be candidtaes to taking the no. 2 spot on the group. I have not watched the game, but does anyone think they can qualify?

I dont know much about their football, but do they have a superstar or something or is it just teamwork

Danilevicius is a good little player.